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World Action On Salt and Health (WASH) runs World Salt Awareness Week every year which receives widespread support from many countries around the world. This important week serves to highlight the importance of reducing salt intake in all populations throughout the world, and all countries are invited to participate; be it holding an event, creating media interest or generating awareness within local communities.

This year Salt Awareness Week runs from 16th - 22nd March and will focus on Children and Salt intake, with an aim of ensuring everyone understands the importance of a healthy start for children. Like adults, children consume more salt than the maximum recommendation. Simple measures need to be implemented to help reduce salt intake and therefore reduce the number of people suffering from cardiovascular disease.

Research suggests that dietary habits in childhood and adolescence influence food choices in later life. A high salt intake in children can influence blood pressure and may predispose a child to the development of a number of diseases including: high blood pressure, osteoporosis, respiratory illnesses such as asthma, stomach cancer and obesity.

As part of the week WASH will be encouraging the food industry to act more responsibly by reducing the amount of salt they add to children's food and to stop advertising high salt food to children. WASH will be developing public health messages, and education programmes to reinforce the message, and will be offering useful information and tips for parents and children on simple changes that can be made to make sure everyone can enjoy a low salt diet.

Food Week 2014 continued with the theme JUST COOK. Just cook a family meal and sit down and enjoy with your family / whanau. Our JUST COOK virtual kitchen continues to give you great ideas for economical family friendly meals using the ingredients from the JUST COOK food list. To read more about JUST COOK you can visit our website www.justcook.co.nz

We are pleased to announce the winners of the JUST COOK Create a Family Meal Challenge. Congratulations to all of our winners!

The overall winner of the competition was Anna Kelly from Havelock North Intermediate School with her Beef & Lamb NZ Challenge entry. Anna won $1000 for her school to put towards cooking equipment.

In September NZNF Nutrition Foundation organised Nutrition Week a new initiative focused on addressing issues currently affecting the nutritional health of all New Zealanders. Throughout the week five nutritional topics were addressed with commentary and insights on each topic being provided by well-known nutritional experts.

Food Week 2013 continued this year with the theme JUST COOK. Just cook a family meal and sit down and enjoy with your family / whanau. Our JUST COOK virtual kitchen gives you great ideas for economical family friendly meals using the ingredients from the JUST COOK food list.

YOUTH COMPETITION

As part of Food Week 2013 we ran a JUST COOK 'Create a Family Meal' Challenge for teens. We are pleased to annouce the winners of the Challenge below:

1st prize- iPod Touch and cookbooks for student, Kenwood Kitchen Machine for school (Tegel Challenge – From the Freezer to the Table)

The Ministry of Health has just released a new “Burden of Disease” study for New Zealand – a culmination of many years of study into disability, disease and premature death.

“We congratulate the Ministry of Health staff for this very impressive body of work at both the national level and the international level,” says Professor Tony Blakely, Director of the Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE3) at the University of Otago, Wellington.

The findings reinforce the need for the Government to improve the country’s progress towards the smokefree nation goal and improve the nutritional environment.

Key findings include:

Cancers and cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke) each contribute 17.5% of the health loss, followed by mental disorders (11%), musculoskeletal disorders (9%) and injury (8%).

Males have a 13% higher rate of health loss than females – but it differs for fatal conditions (much higher for males) and morbidity (higher for females).

M?ori had about a 75% higher rate of health loss than non-M?ori

The main metric used in the study is disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a composite measure of mortality and morbidity that measures how far our population falls short of ‘ideal’ health. Comparisons can then be made between types of people, diseases and over time.

Professor Blakely says the study is not strictly comparable to a previous Ministry study for 1996.

“But we know from many other statistics – including the recent Global Burden of Disease study – that health status is steadily improving in countries like New Zealand.

“Furthermore the cardiovascular disease burden is falling in its relative contribution, while cancers and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia are rising in their relative contribution.

That is, although life expectancy keeps rising, the mix of diseases and conditions that are causing health loss in New Zealand is changing over time.”

A particularly useful part of the current Ministry study are the calculations of how much of the health loss burden (in DALYs) is due to different risk factors, Professor Blakely says.

“This gives us information about how much health gain we as a society might achieve through ‘ideal and complete’ action on modifiable risk factors.”

Moreover, dietary risk factors combined, including high salt intake, high saturated fat intake, low vegetable and fruit intake, and excess energy intake, accounted for 11.4% of the health loss in 2006 – more than tobacco, he says.

University of Otago, Wellington’s Associate Professor Nick Wilson says improving the nutritional environment for New Zealanders should therefore be a high priority for the Government.

“Fortunately, this can be done in ways that might also save health costs such as by taxing sugar in soft drinks and regulations that limit maximum salt levels in high-salt processed foods,” Professor Wilson says.

Such smart food taxes and regulations around salt are increasingly being used in European and other countries eg, France, Finland, Hungary and Denmark.

Food Week 2012 is coming. We've looked at all our activities from 2011, asked participants what they thought and come up with a programme that uses the best of 2011 Food Week along with some new ideas. The focus is still on JUST COOKing a delicious family meal and how to do this quickly, cheaply day after day. Our Create-a-family-meal challenge has been simplified to make it easier to enter, now you just have to send a recipe and photo for the chance to win yourself an iPod Touch and some Kenwood kitchen equipment for your classroom. The competition is open to intermediate and secondary students. You can find out more about the competition by visiting http://www.nutritionfoundation.org.nz and clicking on the Food Week section.

Food Week is a new initaitive from the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation with the theme this year of JUST COOK. The purpose of Food Week is to encourage home cooking and the swapping of ideas. As part of this, the JUST COOK competition and teaching unit aims to encourage groups of year 10 students to put forward their meal ideas in a fun, informative way that will stimulate discussion. The teaching unit has been prepared and reviewed by HETTANZ (Home Economics and Technology Teachers Association of NZ) members. We have some great prizes for the winning students and their teachers.

For the teachers: Kenwood Major Titanium Kitchen Machine

Kenwood Multi Pro Excel Food Processor

Kenwood Triblade Hand Blender

Panasonic Inverter Microwave

For the students: Sunbeam Appliances

Cook Books

Aprons

Grocery Vouchers

iPod Shuffles

While the teaching unit ties in with the year 10 curriculum and supports the competition, we appreciate you may already have plans in place than mean you cannot devote 4-6 weeks to the unit right now. You can enter the competition without completing the teaching unit. Please encourage your classes to enter the competition, we really want their ideas and for them to show others the great variety of home cooked meals they do eat and enjoy. Entry details are on the competition details form - upload a video and email the entry form back to sarah@nutritionfoundation.org.nz

As this is the first year of Food Week we are very keen to hear from you. We want to keep building and improving the programme over the coming years.Please do not hesitate to contact me with any comments, suggestions or ideas.

One last point, the JUST COOK facebook page and webpage go live at the end of this month, until they are live there is no where to upload videos to!

We want to know what meals your family enjoy. If you like them chances are others will too. Send us the recipe (or recipes) for your family favourites. We'll put the recipes up on our new Facebook page, to be launched at the end of April, so other family cooks can see your ideas.

Your recipe could also win you a night off the cooking. We'll draw one name to win a night for two at a luxury Heritage Hotel of your choice including a $100 room credit. (Some conditions apply) To see a fabulous Heritage Hotel near you go to www.heritagehotels.co.nz/ .

Terms and conditions:

Excludes Rutherford Nelson, Carrington Resort and Heritage Boutique Collection. Some close outs may apply. Prize not exchangeable for cash. Transport to the hotel not included. Winner must be over 18 years of age with a valid credit card to guarantee other incidentals.

Food Week is a new initiative from the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation. The inaugural Food Week was held in May 2011 with theme JUST COOK. Food Week 2012 continues this them and will be held on May 7-13.

JUST COOK was chosen after evaluating research from the Health Sponsorship Council looking at the lifestyle and eating habits of New Zealanders. Their research shows there are a significant number of families, across all demographics, not regularly eating a home cooked meal during the week. Our focus is to encourage this group to prepare and eat more meals at home. Just cooking is a good thing – maybe from that you eat a meal together or have one more vegetable than you would otherwise have had.

In support of JUST COOK, the Health Sponsorship has just completed research on this topic. The results of this research are informing the planning of JUST COOK. One of the key findings was this group wanted more ideas on how to make their ingredients stretch further at minimal risk. They were willing to try new meals based on ingredients they already used and also use a few new ingredients at any one time, as long as the meal wasn’t wasted. Essentially they wanted to know the kids would eat a meal before they would stick their neck out and try something new.

Activities will centre on raising awareness of the basic pantry (includes food cupboard and fridge / freezer) and meals that can be created using these foods plus others purchased as needed.

Check out our facebook page with its interactive cupboard – click on pictures of the foods you have and get meal ideas and recipes for cheap, quick, tasty family meals.

eMark celebrates an important milestone this month with the first appearance of the eMark on supermarket shelves. Harraways, a New Zealand company manufacturing oats and porridge is the first company to adopt the eMark as a front of pack label. eMark is an ideal vehicle to promote the health benefits of Harraways cereals. As breakfast foods, oats and oat cereals are a great choice as most provide slow or medium energy release and are low in energy density. Over the next few months we will be advertising eMark in conjunction with Harraways.

Credible nutrition information promotes good health

Optimum nutrition is a fundamental part of good health. But knowing what to eat, how and when can be hard without access to the right information. The New Zealand Nutrition Foundation’s new website, www.nutritionfoundation.org.nz/, provides scientifically-accurate, easily-accessible information on food and nutrition, helping all New Zealanders towards a healthy, balanced diet.

The website gives up-to-date facts on all you need to know about ‘everything nutrition’; energy to food safety, minerals to glycaemic index. Based on national and international food and nutrition guidelines, it provides practical ideas and tips for all ages and stages.

The Foundation is New Zealand’s leading independent food and nutrition organisation. Everything on the website is written by qualified nutritionists and checked for scientific accuracy by the Foundation’s expert Scientific Advisory Group.

“Nutrition is an area where misinformation and confusion is common. Our new website gives New Zealanders confidence to make the right food choices as part of a healthy lifestyle,” says Sue Pollard, New Zealand Nutrition Foundation CEO.

A good website.
I wonder if you are aware of the increasing shift towards eating less carbohydrates and more fat, particularly older people?

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7:22pm 25th August 2017

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culburnia taumoepeau

7:26pm 25th August 2017

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culburnia taumoepeau

7:29pm 25th August 2017

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Plant & Food Research’s laboratory test for digestibility of starch in foods is being made available to food manufacturers in early 2009.

“This new test puts New Zealand food manufacturers well ahead of the competition in their ability to measure and manipulate starch digestibility of foods. This test has been the workhorse of the Lifestyle Foods programme, and now it is being made available to the New Zealand food industry” said Dr Tim Lindley, business manager for the Lifestyle Foods programme.

The test was developed by Dr John Monro, of Plant & Food Research’s Palmerston North based Nutrition & Health Group, and measures the amount of rapidly digested starch, slowly digested starch, and resistant starch in a food sample.

The rapidly digested starch measurement enables calculation of glycaemic glucose equivalents, and hence glycaemic load, in a way that has significantly greater precision than using clinical measurements, and is much more affordable. The experience gained in doing well over a thousand of these tests to help Lifestyle Foods programme research teams identify new plant varieties, test new food ingredients, and develop new food structures with improved starch digestibility profiles, gives confidence that the test will be a useful tool for the food industry.

While rapidly digested starch is linked to the food’s glycaemic load, the slowly digested starch gives information about the ability of the food to deliver sustained energy supply for two hours after eating, and resistant starch indicates potential for gut health benefits.

The first industry application of the test will be to characterise the starch digestibility profiles of around 500 foods for assigning e-marks for rate of energy release. The test has also been used by the team working on the Aspire diet project, to develop a healthy muesli formulation and to compare the energy release properties of different types of breads.

Plant & Food Research (the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research) began business on 1 December 2008, as the result of a merger between Crop & Food Research and HortResearch.